Janie's Search for Identity in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Janie's Search for Identity in Their Eyes Were Watching God

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, there

are many lessons on a person's search for identity. Janie's search for identity

throughout this book is very visible. It has to do with her search for a name,

and freedom for herself. As she goes through life her search takes many turns

for the worse and a few for the better, but in the end she finds her true

identity. Through her marriages with Logan, Joe, then Tea Cake she figures out

what is for her and how she wants to live. So in the end, she is where she

wants to be.

In Janie's early life she lived with her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny and

Janie were pretty well off and had the privilege to live in the yard of white

folks. While Janie was growing up she played with the white children.­ While

she was in this stage, she was faced with much criticism and was called many

names, so many that everyone started calling her alphabet, "'cause so many

people had done named me different names." Soon she started piecing together

what she knew of her odd identity. Then one day she saw herself in a photograph

and noticed that she looked different, that she had dark skin, and she said,

"before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest." From this

point, Janie fell into somewhat of a downward spiral, setting her off of the

path toward finding her own identity in society. Finally when she was older

Nanny saw her doing somethings under the pear tree that she thought were

unacceptable. Nanny quickly arranged a marriage between Janie and a well-off

local man, Logan Killicks. In this marriage Janie resisted. She felt as if she

was losing her freedom was well as her identity, she wasn't Janie anymore she

was now Mrs. Logan Killicks, and she was somewhat obligated to do what he wanted.

Not long into this marriage, Janie has had enough, and when the chance to go

away with a smooth, romantic man, she takes the chance.

The man Janie left Logan for was named Joe Starks. Joe was a smart man

who started his own town, Eatonville. In the beginning of her relationship with,

Joe, she felt loved, something she never really felt while she had been with

Logan. At first, when she ran away with Joe, she felt as if she was finding her

new identity, but all there was for her to find was a great maze not always